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Ryan Bridge: The climate change message from the Government · Early Edition with Ryan Bridge

• 0:00
  Speaker 1: Don't expect a handout. That's basically the message to homeowners
• 0:04
  Speaker 1: who are hoping the government will swoop in and buy
• 0:07
  Speaker 1: out houses after the next big cyclone, as they have
• 0:09
  Speaker 1: been doing to this point. Watts is the Climate Minister.
• 0:12
  Speaker 1: He took a paper to Cabinet. I had to read
• 0:14
  Speaker 1: of it at the weekend. They haven't immediately turned the
• 0:17
  Speaker 1: tap off to buyouts, but they're making it pretty clear
• 0:20
  Speaker 1: it won't be long before they do. How long does
• 0:23
  Speaker 1: it say specifically just sometime in the near future. If
• 0:27
  Speaker 1: you're buying a house or you're buying land, you're going
• 0:29
  Speaker 1: to want to check flood zones very carefully. Basically after
• 0:34
  Speaker 1: the Auckland floods, you know which parts of your suburb
• 0:37
  Speaker 1: are prone to flooding. You can see it, you saw it.
• 0:39
  Speaker 1: That's generally where you don't want to buy. You're going
• 0:44
  Speaker 1: to have to manage this risk. We are going to
• 0:46
  Speaker 1: have to manage this risk. Our insurers are going to
• 0:48
  Speaker 1: have to manage this risk and try and mitigate it.
• 0:50
  Speaker 1: The Council and the Government spent two billion on buyouts.
• 0:53
  Speaker 1: This is after the Auckland floods. That may not happen
• 0:56
  Speaker 1: next time. And guess how many homes are sitting in
• 0:59
  Speaker 1: flood prone areas right now in New Zealand, apparently, according
• 1:02
  Speaker 1: to the latest data, hundreds of thousands worth one hundred
• 1:05
  Speaker 1: and eighty billion dollars combined. It means insurance will be
• 1:09
  Speaker 1: more expensive or non existent for some areas and some properties.
• 1:13
  Speaker 1: The government basically wants to take itself out of the
• 1:16
  Speaker 1: risk equation, one because it's cheaper for them, two because
• 1:21
  Speaker 1: buying out flood prone land distorts the market. If you
• 1:25
  Speaker 1: know a buyout is going to happen, you'll be less
• 1:27
  Speaker 1: worried about flooding and pay more than you should for
• 1:30
  Speaker 1: the site. The scientists tell us that damage from cyclones
• 1:35
  Speaker 1: and floodings is only going to get more intense and frequent,
• 1:39
  Speaker 1: and you should basically consider this a warning from the government.
• 1:42
  Speaker 1: They don't want the same thing that's happening to the
• 1:45
  Speaker 1: properties happening to their books. For more from Early Edition
• 1:49
  Speaker 1: with Ryan Bridge, listen live to News Talks it'd be
• 1:52
  Speaker 1: from five am weekdays, or follow the podcast on iHeartRadio.